On the Move – The Power of Paint

Last week the kids started school (praise be!) so I jumped right into getting the new house in order. The boxes are unpacked but before any pictures can be hung on the wall or furniture can be arranged there is a massive amount of painting that needs to be done. The previous owners used a lot of dark paint in an already dark house so the first priority is making the house lighter and brighter. All the dark colors that eat up all the light will be repainted to bright crisp neutrals that will help lighten the space.

The kitchen is always my first priority since eating out of a fast food bag gets pretty old after a while and FYI makes you fat. Ten pounds later it is time to paint the kitchen and get some healthy food on the table!  The cabinets and trim (in the entire house) are creamy white, not the bright white I would normally choose but at least something I can live with. The trim color is called  Quail Egg by Valspar. All the paints I am using are Valspar since I am lucky enough to have a Lowe’s Home Improvement store right up the road. (I can’t tell you how much I missed Lowe’s while I was in Germany.)

For the kitchen I chose a Valspar color called Italian Ice. It is an icy blue that is almost white. I think works really nicely against the creamy trim. In the picture below you can see how dark the green paint was before.

Now from the chair rail down it is Quail Egg and above Italian Ice.

I decide to paint the header above the cabinets the same color as the cabinets to give the illusion of the cabinets going all the way to the ceiling with a deep crown molding rather than have the space broken up by a second color like it was with the green.

While before the kitchen was a light eating dark green.

Now it is bright, fresh and makes me smile every time I walk in.

Another spaces I tackled this week was the entry hall. It got the same Quail Egg treatment below the chair rail as the kitchen and a crisp coat of Swiss Coffee (my go to warm white) above. I am really liking how the white on white turned out and am thinking I will use this same treatment in the main living area. I can’t wait to get some art up to bring in some color on this white.

Finally the room that should be the formal living/dining room (but is a good size for neither) had a coat of dark navy that needed to go. This space will be my husband’s man cave and fortunately was already painted a nice warm grey above the chair rail. I decide to continue the Quail Egg below the chair rail in all the living spaces and keep the upper as is. I think this is one of the few rooms in the house that will not need a full paint job.

The paint is doing a nice job of brightening the house and now with a few rooms painted maybe I can get some of the pictures on the wall and at least part of the house livable. There is still a lot more painting to be done but having these few room looking lighter and brighter helps motivate me to keep going.

Now back to work for me, but I will be sure to update you on all the plans and progress.